Broken date at the chai shop

Sunday October 21

I arrived back in Varanasi a couple of days ago after an absence of 2½ years. I am staying in the old district of Bhadaini in a private family guesthouse with the catchy name of Groovy Ganges Guesthouse. The street outside is narrow and dusty with piles of chunky gravel along the edges: either something is in the process of being built or demolished – it’s hard to tell which.

Countdown

The countdown is on for my next trip to India, this time for six months. Flying out on 15 October to Delhi, arriving on the morning of the 16th, then a short flight to Dehradun, the capital city of Uttarakhand in the Indian Himalayas. The main purpose of my visit in this northern region